Xbox Live Marketplace is now featuring a playable demo of EA's real-time strategy, The Battle for Middle-earth II. The demo features an introductory level; the first mission from the single-player evil campaign, which allows you to play as a Goblin or Elf; and a multiplayer map. Simply sign in to Xbox LIVE from the Xbox Dashboard to download the free demo.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six makes its next-generation hardware debut in the most dramatic installment of the renowned first-person shooter franchise to date. Rainbow operatives take to the chaotic streets of Las Vegas as an escalating terrorist siege in "Sin City" threatens to take world terrorism to new, uncontrollable heights.

Namco Bandai announced today that Tekken: Dark Resurrection for the PSP system has gone gold and will appear on store shelves nationwide on Tuesday, July 25, 2006.

Perimeter: Emperor's Testament, expansion pack to last year’s award-winning RTS, will feature all new & updated graphics, tons of new units and structures, a new soundtrack, and a total of 25 new missions.

Today Ubisoft reached an agreement with Atari and Reflections Interactive to acquire the intellectual property and rights to the Driver franchise, as well as most of the assets and all of the personnel of Reflections Interactive. The acquisition will be completed for a cash price of €19M ($24M US) and is subject to customary closing conditions.

According to Gamers with Jobs, the source code for Hellgate: London may have been stolen when Flagship Studios' network was compromised. We tried to confirm with our sources at Namco, but the PR representative that wasn't dodging calls claimed no knowledge of the incident. This is very reminiscent of Valve's debacle with Half-Life 2, and as Yogi Berra might say, "It's like déjà vu all over again ..."

UPDATE

Flagship's response: "We've heard the same rumors. Obviously this is of concern to us and we've been looking into it, but we haven't been able to ascertain any further information to substantiate those rumors."

Ubisoft today released its 2005-2006 annual results for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006. At €547M, sales were up 3% from the previous fiscal year. Profits, however, declined over 50%, from €24.7M to €11.9M, due to research and development for next-gen titles and increased marketing costs during the console transition. The initial investment has already begun to pay off, as next-gen titles composed almost 30% of their sales for the fiscal year.

Super Monkey Ball Adventure is an all-new, narrative-driven and platform-based style of gameplay, along with brand-new Monkey Ball abilities and a bunch of fresh new characters, adding 50 new and original puzzles to this new and exciting gaming experience.

According to the New York Daily News, Roger Hill, who played a big-time gang leader in the 1979 cult movie, "The Warriors," filed suit yesterday, claiming that Take-Two does not have the rights to use his likeness in the video game of the same name. Hill's demands include $250,000 and a court order preventing further use of his likeness.

Take-Two Interactive announced that a week ago, it received grand jury subpoenas from the County of New York requesting various documents related to the knowledge of its officers and directors regarding the creation and inclusion of hidden scenes, commonly referred to as "hot coffee," in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.